March 29, 2014

Maria Bartiromo: What's she up to badmouthing former CNBC colleagues

An aging celebrity in financial news, Maria Bartiromo has been fortunate to continue to maintain prominence in the industry. Most recently she moved from CNBC to filling two slots at FBN (the business news at Fox).

Normally survivors in a tough business would be gracious, to all. The role model for that is Diane Sawyer. Because of her old-world good manners, so many of us are rooting that Sawyer remains a dominant television personality.

Surely, no-newbie in the game, Bartiromo has to know the power of nice, at least the public version of that. Yet, it's making the rounds of media that she had badmouthed her former colleagues at CNBC. For example, the influential Business Insider has as its opening sentence:

"Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo insulted all of her former co-workers by saying they didn't work as hard as she did when it came to booking on-air guests."

The article then goes on to put out there on the record that those co-workers find her assessment of them "baffling," "insulting" and not true. Here you can read that BI coverage.

Those with even a bit of insight into human nature now are wondering what Bartiromo's agenda is in making this verbal move. Is she trying to position her new employer Fox as a bunch of worker bees v. the lazies at CNBC? Or is she attempting to shore up her own brand, which she fears might be fading?